Mahite’s Yogurt Cake
My second host mum who lived in the French mediterranean was a superb cook as well. Here's a quick-and-easy cake recipe from France that I'm picking out from a little recipe notebook she wrote me. (I'm translating so some things may be off.)
Ingredients
1 pie crust
1 small plain yogurt, about a cup
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
1 cup oil
1 teaspoon of baking powder (if you're displeased with the quality, use yeast)
3 eggs
1/2 a cup of rum, or any other perfuming agent
(optional) sliced pears, apples, or other fruits
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 F
- Mix all the ingredients and pour it onto the pie crust.
- Bake for around 40 minutes.
- (testing for readiness) Place a knife into the pie, if the blade comes out dry, the cake is done.
Steamed Egg Custard (season 2, episode 3)
Steamed Egg Custard. Photography by Danny Y. Huang.
Ingredients
4 Eggs
500 ml whole milk
4 tablespoon sugar (approx. 100g)
Cost: <$2.00
Instructions
- Warm 500 ml of milk and be careful not to let it boil over. Melt the 4 tablespoons of sugar in it. Let cool.
- Prepare a steamer with a bowl in it on high.
- Whisk 4 eggs and add to the cooled milk. Pour this into the bowl in the steamer and use a paper towel to remove froth on the sides. (Cover the bowl with plastic wrap for a better looking egg.)
- Steam for 10 mins. Serve immediately or chilled. If chilled, consider adding fresh cold fruits.
Steamed Egg Custard (season 2, episode 3)
Want to impress someone with a dessert but cannot bake? Try steaming.
Steamy Failure…or Not
Red Bean Cake. Steven P.S. Cheng.
So some of you might know what a red bean soup tastes like. You know, if you go to a decent Cantonese restaurant for dinner, they usually throw this in as dessert, especially on the West Coast. For those of you who don't, half close your eyes while you read:
Imagine a taste that is red and sensual, with light hints of earth that gently envelopes your tongue; feel the sugar inching its way up, and up... until...
this is the First Failure: you realize that you've put in too much dried citrus peel. Yes, damn it. Instead of something effervescent and delightful, what results is a musky cloth that sits on your tongue. Forget the coconut milk I added, my red bean soup failed.
My plan to give me a snack for the next few days failed. Saddened, I let the soup sit in the crock pot* while I stewed off my anger and disappointment. The next day -- yes, I'm a college student, and I forgot stuff that I've got cookin' -- after my classes, instead of taking a nap, because I thought that would be too much a waste of time, I decided to make a pastry with the red bean soup.
Read more...Red Bean Cake
[Read how I failed at making it, initially]
Red Bean Cake. Photo by Steven P.S. Cheng.
Ingredients
For the Dough:
1/2C Glutinous Rice Flour
1/4C Corn Starch
1/4C All Purpose Flour
1/4C Sugar
For the Soup:
250 g of Red Beans
(go to a health store and ask for Japanese Aki beans, the big ones, about 1/2 the size of a red kidney bean)
4 cups water
Sugar, to taste (use rock candy ideally, cf. Honeydew Melon Soup)
Optional: Coconut, Dried Citrus Peel, Lotus Seeds, Lily bulbs
Cost: $5
Instructions
For the red bean soup:
- Soak the optional dried lily bulbs and lotus seeds.
- Wash the beans and bring to a boil with around 4 cups of water in a pot.
- Let boil for around 10 mins, uncovered, then turn to simmer. Put the lid back on. Add sugar, dried citrus peel, about the size of a quarter, if you have it. Let it simmer for 4 hours.
(If you have a crock pot, put it in on low and leave overnight) - When you're ready to serve it, bring to a boil, add the canned coconut milk.
(shake well before opening, or mix well after opening before you add it to the hot soup, otherwise, clots will form) - Serve as a soup, chilled or hot, or in our case, use for the Red Bean Cake.
For the Dough
- Prepare a steamer. Add water and put heat on high. Ensure you have enough water for an hour's worth of steaming.
- Combine the flours and sugar and mix well before slowly adding in the hot red bean soup.
- Form a dough.
- Add in the remainder of the beans in the soup to the dough. ( Either drain the beans and add it to dough, or make sure your dough is a little on the dry side before adding in the beans out of the pot.)
- Place the mixed dough in a receptacle and steam for an hour.
(I used a pyrex bread tray and filled it halfway; if you're using something more shallow, reduce steaming time) - Remove from steamer and place in the fridge overnight.
- Slice and serve directly, or microwave the sliced pieces for 10-20 secs before serving. Alternatively, as I have done, pan fry it on a lightly coated pan and then serve with a mixture of sugar, and roasted sesames.
Honeydew Melon Dessert Soup (season 1, episode 5)
Hot or cold, as dessert, breakfast, or a simple snack -- have a taste of a light coconut milk dessert infused with the sweetness of honeydew melon.
[Recipe]
Honeydew Melon Dessert Soup (season 1, episode 5)
[Watch the episode]
Ingredients
No set quantity, all to taste.
Honeydew Melon*, diced (important to let it ripen before use, otherwise the soup will be tasteless)
Coconut milk
Chinese Rock Sugar (sometimes called "Rock candy" or "lump sugar")
Tapioca
Cost: <$5 for a pot enough for at least 4.
*Instead of dicing the melon, if you have a melon-baller, use it to create those intricate spheres to impress; to help your melon ripen, wrap it in a cloth with ripe bananas (should work, like with most fruits).
Instructions
- Bring pot of water to boil, and prepare another pot/kettle of boiling water.
- Add honey dew melon to pot, let it boil for 5 minutes, then put on simmer.
- In a separate bowl, soak tapioca in hot water (from kettle) for 30 minutes.
- The tapioca should be translucent on the outside, though the core might still be white, it is fine. Sieve, or at least remove majority of the water.
- Bring the pot back to a boil, add the tapioca. Let it boil for 3 -5 minutes.
- Turn heat to low, add coconut milk, mix well, and serve. (to avoid clumps, trick is to mix the coconut milk well before adding to the pot).
- Serve immediately hot, or cold after a night of refrigeration. Serve as dessert or as breakfast.
Dining Hall Specials: Fancy Ice-Cream Plating (season 1, episode 2)
Watch the episode only as an example; really there are no fixed rules. Be observant, be creative, and have fun at your own dining halls.
Cost: None